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Since virtually everything that is wrong in the world is Israel’s fault, we have no choice but to boycott Israel or at least follow those brave Presbyterians and disinvest. Reading the world media, I have to believe that Israel, like Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes, is a spider weaving an immense and complex web of evil and criminality. Okay, if that seems just a little over the top, how about the premise that the suffering and death in the Muslim World is directly attributable to Israel’s policies and existence?

Take Black September when nearly 15,000 Palestinians were slaughtered. A true moral outrage. The world’s response? Hate Israel. But the killing was done by King Hussein of Jordan and his Hashemite Bedouin army. Still, that doesn’t fit the narrative, so boycott Israel.

Saddam Hussein, late of Iraq, killed between 50,000 and 180,000 Kurds and between 60,000 and 100,000 Iraqi Shiites. No evidence of a Zionist conspiracy to help him–though he did receive American arms and training. Well, good enough. Boycott Israel.

During the Iran v Iraq War half a million soldiers died and nearly as many civilians. Virtually all of them were Muslims. A Zionist conspiracy? Well, Israel did trade arms to Iran, though it was at Ronald Reagan’s behest. Still, what the hell, boycott Israel.

Bashar al-Assad, following in his father’s brutal footsteps, has killed by bombs, rockets, chemical weapons and chlorine gas (for some reason not listed as a chemical weapon) over 11,000 children, 5,000 women and 21,000 men. And these are just the civilians. Israel must be complicit. If not, then surely the 30,000 pro-Assad killed–both regular military and Hezbollah and Iraqi volunteers–have to warrant boycotting Israel.

Crossing the Syrian-Iraqi border, radical Sunnis are slaughtering Shiites–particularly members of the Iraqi army. Summary executions and beheadings leave a path of blood across the north. That path must surely lead to Israel. Even if not, go ahead and boycott Israel anyway. Doesn’t have to make sense.

Saudi Arabia slaughters Shiites in Bahrain, stones their own citizens and lops off hands, limbs and heads. I can see no sensible response other than boycotting Israel.

In Egypt, not even counting the many victims of Mubarak, around 683 protesters have died in the streets. Countless have been imprisoned without trial and then there was a mass trial without a hint of justice, that condemned 183 to death. Only this week a phony trial sent four reporters to prison for 7 years for, well, reporting. I’m pretty sure these Al Jazeera reporters, working for Qatar and being accused of being pro-Muslim Brotherhood, are really Zionist agents in deep cover. Somehow the 600 Christian Copts killed in Egypt also have to be Israel’s responsibility.

All over North Africa, Sunni Muslims are killing each other. Some are new Salafists and some Sufi, but none show mercy to the other.

World wide the greatest killers of Muslims are Muslims. The greatest non-Muslim killer of Muslims is America (with token killing by our NATO allies). However, since we are allies with Israel, the only solution clearly is to boycott Israel.

Now it is true that Muslims have died at Israeli hands. Over the past 40 years approximately 6,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military actions–some were specifically targeted and some were tragic results of the state of war. None, as far as I know, was beheaded, nor were any lined up and summarily executed. In this same time about 1,000 Israelis were killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism designed to kill civilians.*

So, while it is certainly fair to criticize Israeli policies, to act as if Israel were even a statistically significant persecutor and killer of Muslims is just factually incorrect. Even Russia has killed far more Muslims from Chechnya alone–not counting their own misadventures in Afghanistan. Though to be fair, in Afghanistan more Muslims die at each others’ hands than by foreign intervention.

So, we really do have to ask why there is this enormously slanted playing field and double standard for judging and condemning Israel? I don’t like any of the answers that present themselves to me. The world seems willing to mourn Jews when we are killed but condemns us when we fight back–even if we’re only trying to stay alive. If this insight is upsetting, then I’d suggest that you just go boycott Israel.

*N.B. The mortality statistics are not made up and have been sourced from usually reliable purveyors of data. Still, all war time and battlefield stats are guesses–some educated and some propaganda.